The Chattahoochee River is the most heavily used water resource in Georgia(USGS Water Resources Investigations Report 95-4278). The quality of the water is a result of the complex interaction of natural and human influences on land and water. Metropolitan Atlanta, the largest and fastest growing metro area in the Southeast, is in the river basin’s headwaters. The basin’s growing population presents challenges to balancing human and ecosystem needs for water of sufficient quantity and quality.
Urban runoff and other nonpoint sources, such as eroded soil from construction activities, constitute approximately 75 percent of the pollution problems. Various state and federal laws mandate the control of stormwater runoff in order to protect downstream water quality and property values, however, enforcement is severely lacking at all levels of government. Silvicultural and agricultural activities can also influence aquatic ecosystems primarily through nonpoint source inputs of pesticides, nutrients and sediment, and by physical alteration of riparian and stream margin habitats. The cumulative effect of these activities has not been systematically evaluated in the ACF basin. (USGS Report, 95-4278)
More than 150 municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities are permitted to discharge into the Chattahoochee River basin between the town of Helen and West Point Dam. These discharges include approximately 500 million gallons of treated sewage from cities and counties. The Chattahoochee River Basin Plan includes information on all of these permitted discharges. Although the quality of wastewater effluent has improved since the 1980s, inadequate treatment capabilities or operational deficiencies at some of these facilities continue to result in permit violations and water quality problems.
http://www.chattahoochee.org/water-quality.php
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